Does anyone else find this funny? The latest “scandal” on the beauty pageant circuit is that the new Miss Brooklyn isn’t even from Brooklyn. She lives in Manhattan. And she’s actually a Virginian. Which I guess is kind of a slap in the face not only to those beautiful Brooklynites competing in the just-reinstated pageant which hasn’t been around since 1991 (and the last winner was not a Brooklynite either, but a Long Islander), but is also an insult to everyone in the borough—at least the ones that aren’t so super-excited the pageant is back that they actually CARE the winner doesn’t represent their corner of the city.But what this brings to mind isn’t that beauty pageants are antiquated rituals in which the sole purpose is to stuff a woman into a too-tight overdone prom dress or shellacked bikini and then to strut her out on stage, or even that those in charge of the Brooklyn beauty pageant are most likely former beauty queens without the brain cells to check the addresses of competitors to ensure they’re not carpet-baggers. It’s that, in a backwards way, it’s sort of a tribute to an ever-changing city with an ever-shifting population. People come and go, their idea of home is transient, and they move through the arteries of the city, uptown, downtown, outer boroughs, and there are still young people that come to this ever-gentrifying city with its increasing rents for tinier spaces that are determined to carve out a place for themselves and have the chops to see their own dreams through—because in this city, even a Virginian can become Miss Brooklyn and have a shot at the Miss USA title.
Does anyone else find this funny? The latest “scandal” on the beauty pageant circuit is that the new Miss Brooklyn isn’t even from Brooklyn. She lives in Manhattan. And she’s actually a Virginian. Which I guess is kind of a slap in the face not only to those beautiful Brooklynites competing in the just-reinstated pageant which hasn’t been around since 1991 (and the last winner was not a Brooklynite either, but a Long Islander), but is also an insult to everyone in the borough—at least the ones that aren’t so super-excited the pageant is back that they actually CARE the winner doesn’t represent their corner of the city.But what this brings to mind isn’t that beauty pageants are antiquated rituals in which the sole purpose is to stuff a woman into a too-tight overdone prom dress or shellacked bikini and then to strut her out on stage, or even that those in charge of the Brooklyn beauty pageant are most likely former beauty queens without the brain cells to check the addresses of competitors to ensure they’re not carpet-baggers. It’s that, in a backwards way, it’s sort of a tribute to an ever-changing city with an ever-shifting population. People come and go, their idea of home is transient, and they move through the arteries of the city, uptown, downtown, outer boroughs, and there are still young people that come to this ever-gentrifying city with its increasing rents for tinier spaces that are determined to carve out a place for themselves and have the chops to see their own dreams through—because in this city, even a Virginian can become Miss Brooklyn and have a shot at the Miss USA title.
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